“Students can visit the Study Guidance Centre (SGC) at any time during the year”, says Pascale Petit, Study Advisor at the SGC on the VUB's campus in Jette. “The SGC strongly encourages initiatives such as group study and provides group accompaniment on a permanent basis. Every week, we also publish new tips for the exams on the MY.VUB student portal. The contact point also enables students to speak with a study advisor, student psychologist or learning path counsellor at any moment. They may talk about study methods, exam schedules, exam skills, deliberations, the Education and Examination Regulation (Onderwijs- en Examenreglement - OER), stress, the learning path, etc.; basically all study-related examination subjects.”
Study accompaniment on a permanent basis
“During the study periods, students with questions about course contents or difficult exercises can speak directly to tutors and assistants. Subject-specific guidance on mathematics, physics or chemistry, among others, is provided by study advisors of the SGC. The accompaniment is mainly intended for first year Bachelor students. Students in later years already have more of a self-help culture: they speak to the lecturer after the lecture, pose questions to their fellow students or post them on a forum.”
The SGC provides a peaceful setting for group study. Fellow students ensure that a motivating atmosphere is created. The students study together and ask each other questions. All information about group study is available on MY.VUB.
Discuss and motivate
“Students can visit the SGC contact point at any time: there is always someone there. Students sometimes come to the SGC just to chat after an exam. When they feel that the exam did not go well, they can express their disappointment. This is usually sufficient to restore their courage and to enable them to take on their next exam. We help them see that a bad exam is not a lost session. We try to boost their self-confidence or provide them with tips to study better for the next exam or to take the exam in a different way.”
The Study Guidance Centre can be contacted by mail and contact details and opening hours for the various campuses can be found on MY.VUB.